Construction Company to Tackle Children’s Inactivity

04 Nov, 2015 – Earlier this year a report was published by ukactive Kids discussing a growing problem with inactivity and poor health in children. The study found that 99% of the primary schools surveyed in England did not formally measure children’s levels of physical activity or motor skills. UK based construction company Soft Surfaces Ltd specialise in developing outdoor play facilities and sports pitches for schools and local communities. The company have been looking at ways they can help to get children more active and improve their health and fitness through regular exercise.

As many schools do not have good quality outdoor games areas or facilities, teachers feel that children often don’t have a lot of opportunities to get involved in extracurricular sports clubs. Steve McLoughlin, a PE teacher from a school in Liverpool commented, “Our outdoor sports areas are very old and don’t offer pupils an enjoyable place to get involved in sport, if the facilities were improved I think the kids would be encouraged to join after school clubs.”

The team at Soft Surfaces Ltd work across the UK to install multi use activity areas, tennis courts, football pitches and athletics tracks, click here to look at a case study of one of their recent projects at a school in Penrith. With help from the UK government, and funding organisations like Sport England, schools have been given grants to help improve both the teaching of sports lessons and their outdoor facilities. Dan Grant works at Soft Surfaces Ltd and sees a lot of benefits for children – “Through schools receiving financial help from the government and local funding providers, we are able to install new games areas and facilities in more locations,” he says, “this is great for kids and the local community as it gives more opportunities for them to get active and improve their physical fitness.”

As well as highlighting the importance of having good quality sports and recreational areas in schools, the ukactive Kids report also called for more monitoring to be done on children’s health. It was found that only 10% of the schools surveyed had carried out checks on their pupils’ cardiorespiratory fitness. The health organisation suggested that schools should implement schemes to encourage children to increase their activity, and also to work with companies like Soft Surfaces Ltd as a way of developing their outdoor sports provision.

To find out more about the work that Soft Surfaces Ltd are doing to improve school sports facilities, visit their website at http://www.softsurfaces.co.uk/